Replay of the lecture in February 28, 2023
By Dr. Patrick Michel, Director of Research at the CNRS/Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, ESA Hera Mission Scientist
The DART (NASA) and Hera (ESA) missions are the first fully documented asteroid deflection test based on the kinetic impactor technique, to verify and potentially validate this technique and numerical simulations of asteroid-scale impacts. The first component, DART, successfully performed an impact on the small moon of the double asteroid Didymos changing its trajectory around its main body! What are the challenges, surprises and uncertainties? How will Hera measure the result of this impact and the properties of the asteroid?